At the beginning of the story, I was touched by Annie's concern for her father. She obviously loved and respected him. She viewed her father as a victim and pitied him to some extent I think. I felt as she did when she told why her father was in prison. Her statue of him was a good symbol of how she felt about him. someone who suffered unjustly at the hands of a totalitatian government. I think she identified with Gabrielle Fonteneau because she believes that both of their fathers suffered from an unjust government.
When Annie first started talking about the ancient Egyptians, I thought she was just remembering her father because she missed him and was worried about him. Later, I realized that the author put it there because of how the father viewed the statue. He explained this when he came back and told Annie he had thrown the statue in the water. When he told how he was a guard at the prison instead of a prisoner, I felt betrayed. He was not a victim, but a victimizer. I understood why Annie felt she might never be able to do art again. She had spent her whole life believing her father to be a good man who suffered unjustly, and then to suddenly find out that he was one of the "bad guys." I don't believe she would ever be able to look at him the same again.
The title refered to the Ancient Egyptian book of the Dead and more particulary to the weighing of the heart after death. Annie's father felt that his heart was too heavy to allow him into the next world, and he also viewed Annie's statue of him as a charm that might help him. The statue was a representation of the way she pictured him her whole life, and I think to some extent, what he wanted to be.
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I felt so bad for Annie. She was obviously a pretty decent artist, and you can tell that she loved what she was doing. Her father was her inspiration. She managed to put his story into all of his pieces of work. Her whole career was based off of his unfair treatment. I think Annie would have rathered to have her father be missing for a long period of time than to have to have found out that he represented the evil in the prison. He was the one who was hurting the prisoners. This was truly life-changing for her. I agree that she will probably never be able to look at him the same. And if she manages to find an inspiration to start back into her art career, I don't think anything she makes will be the same either. I think that Annie's father should have either told her the truth the whole time, or not have told her anything. The lie has destroyed her life.
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